LTO ULTRIUM tape technology sales grow by double digits
15 Percent Year Over Year Growth in Total
LTO Tape Drive Shipments Demonstrate Strong Acceptance for the Format and
Advantages Tape Can Bring to Businesses
HP,
IBM Corporation and
Quantum Corporation, the three technology
provider companies for the Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Program, today announced that
the
LTO Ultrium format has shown strong performance
during 2007 with double digit sales growth, according to new industry data from
IDC. This strong growth is driven by the need to protect data using a best
practices approach as well as the security, energy efficiency and low TCO
advantages that tape storage offers organizations.
The report shows that total midrange tape drive
shipments grew by 10 percent in 2007 when compared to 2006 and
LTO tape drive shipments grew 15 percent.
According to IDC, over $883.1 million of
LTO tape drives shipped in 2007.
"The LTO format has evolved throughout each generation
to provide ever-higher capacities, ever-higher performance and one of the lowest
total cost of ownership propositions for midrange data protection in the
industry," said Robert Amatruda, analyst, IDC. "The LTO share numbers
demonstrate that LTO tape continues to thrive, provides a vital, foundational
part of a best practices approach to data protection, as well as provides energy
savings over disk-only solutions to support green data center initiatives."
The format's adoption in tape automation is up three
percent from the end of 2006.
"Tape is one of the most efficient ways to address data
protection, delivering cost-efficiency and energy efficiency to business," said
Rob Clark, senior director, removable storage solutions for Quantum. "As we look
over the landscape of challenges that storage administrators need to address in
their day-to-day operations, we are committed to providing the functionality and
value that business will require today and in the coming years."
LTO format
generation 4 technology delivers the backup and
archiving features needed by today's storage personnel, including high capacity,
blazing performance and substantial data protection features. And, with low
energy consumption, LTO tape products can also provide organizations with a
green backup and archiving solution for their data centers.
Providing up to 1.6TB of capacity (assuming 2:1
compression) per cartridge,
LTO-4 tape drive products bring transfer rates up to 240MB per second
(assuming 2:1 compression), offers WORM (Write-Once, Read-Many) functionality
that provides cost-effective means for storing data in a non-rewriteable format
to help address compliance needs.
Support for 256-bit AES-GCM encryption capabilities at
the tape drive level is designed to enable the writing of encrypted data to the
LTO Ultrium tape cartridge, helping to protect information on the tapes during
storage and transportation.
LTO format generation 4 drives support
backwards-compatible read-and-write capability with
LTO generation 3 cartridges and backward read
capabilities with LTO generation 2 cartridges, to help protect the investment
customers have made in LTO products.